Lamar football to play at Hawaii, OK St., A&M

CHRISTOPHER DABE

Published 12:00 am, Thursday, April 22, 2010

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Lamar running back Cornelius Shackelford, center, rushes against the Lamar defense during the Cardinals final spring scrimmage. Lamar will be adding more strength to their schedule starting in 2012 when they play at Hawaii. They will add games with Texas A&M and Oklahoma State to their schedule in the following seasons. (Valentino Mauricio/The Enterprise) less

Lamar running back Cornelius Shackelford, center, rushes against the Lamar defense during the Cardinals final spring scrimmage. Lamar will be adding more strength to their schedule starting in 2012 when they ... more

Lamar football to play at Hawaii, OK St., A&M

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The Lamar University football team will face strong competition in games at Hawaii, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M in upcoming seasons. The team will also get three hefty payouts.

Road trips planned for 2012 to Hawaii, 2013 to Oklahoma State and 2014 to Texas A&M will bring Lamar a total of $850,000 that will go toward financing the football program, school officials said Thursday.

The games will also give the Cardinals the stiff competition they'll need as they prepare for Southland Conference play in those seasons. Lamar announced the scheduling of those games Thursday.

"Coach (Ray) Woodard has been aggressive in scheduling, which is good," Lamar athletic director Billy Tubbs said. "But the type of competition helps you in your conference. You're playing at a high level. This is a very aggressive step. We're going to have a very aggressive football program. It's smart scheduling."

Tubbs said he is most impressed with the scheduling of Hawaii, which does not count against the NCAA's maximum allotment of 11 games for Football Championship Subdivision teams. That means Lamar is able to schedule 12 games for the 2012 season, Tubbs said.

The dates for the scheduled games are Sept. 15, 2012 at Hawaii; Sept. 14, 2013 at Oklahoma State and Aug. 30, 2014 at Texas A&M, according to the school.

Each trip will bring a different payout package to Lamar. The school will receive $125,000 plus travel expenses for three nights from Hawaii, $375,000 from Oklahoma State and $350,000 from A&M. Those payouts are about average for FCS schools to play on the road against Bowl Subdivision schools.

The payouts are for so-called guarantee games, where lesser programs are paid to come on the road for a presumed loss. Although Woodard and his players will never presume a loss, there are additional benefits that come with scheduling such road trips.

For one, there is a recruiting benefit to telling prospective players about planned trips to major college football stadiums. The payouts will help Lamar pay operating expenses such as recruiting trips and new equipment. The payouts will also go toward paying for two schools to play games each season at Provost Umphrey Stadium. Woodard said he plans to play one non-conference road game and two non-conference home games each season.

"I really wanted to try to nail down the one FBS school, and try to get the two home games prior to the conference games," Woodard said.

Lamar last fielded a football team in 1989, when the board of regents elected to drop football. The school has since decided to bring back football, and the team's first game is Sept. 4 against McNeese State in Lake Charles, La. The Cardinals will play 11 non-conference games this season.

The team will become a football-playing member of the Southland Conference and will play a full conference schedule in 2011. Woodard said no deals to play other schools have been struck.